Nearly 16 years have elapsed since Houston’s oil bust ended in early 1987. Since that time several important events have shaped the local business cycle: the 1990–91 U.S. economic recession, the U.S. economic boom of the late 1990s, the Asian financial crisis and the 2001 U.S. recession. Interwoven with these larger events is a related cycle in oil and other commodities that was particularly important to Houston.